wanly noodle shop @ carlingford village, carlingford

Just because two people like food doesn't automatically mean they'll see eye to eye on everything about food. Take for example my dad, he's the cook in the family, loves food and he's not shy to spend money on it. I love his cooking like no other yet when we go out, more often than not, we'll end up in some lengthy debate about what to eat and what to try, and well, dad being dad, usually gets his say.

That's not to say that between us we haven't compromised and lately I've noticed dad has been more willing than he has been in the past. Dad's always been of the thinking that good food is going out to the places you've been to who are known to cook up a good dish and well, what that defaults to is eating the same dishes that have been ordered before. He doesn't think trying new restaurants is a good idea - there have been exceptions (notably when a restaurant is recommended as being cheap) but largely, he sticks to the same places where people end up getting to know us my our names (which is great when it means we get a bit more service).

So where's the compromise? Well lately dad seems to have seen that eating the same thing at the same place every time is quite boring. He's been a bit more adventurous and despite going to the same places, he will break out a little and try something new. Wanly Noodle Shop in Carlingford is a place regularly visited my parents and this what we had the other night:

Something new - Eggy Prawn sitting on a base of crispy fried vermicelli noodles. I'm a fan.

One of the regulars - Curry Beef. It looks like a lot of onion but tastes great.

Seafood with vegetables.

A new take on the omelette. It was a mixed omelette with seafood and meats, served with a sweet & sour sauce.

Dad is a big fan of the head chef who cooks here. It's basically a one-man show and he does a great job at it (and I would agree!). The dishes are all cooked to order, ready in no time and taste great. In Cantonese they would say that all the dishes have good 'wok air' - which really is a compliment to the chef that he's mastered the use of the wok and the food that he cooks out of is superb.

My dad's only warning is be prepared for a substandard quality of food when the head chef isn't there. I guess even with the places that my dad loves to go to aren't always perfect, but I mean, is there really a perfect restaurant out there? If you think there is, let me know!

Anyway, great to see that dad's trying new things when he goes out and eat. And I'll just keep working on pushing him so he tries some of the restaurants which at the moment, only happens when a place closes down and needs to be replaced. Dad will always be Dad!

cafe centro @ rowe st., eastwood

It was 3pm, the plan was to walk to West Ryde and adventurous as I was about these walks which J has been getting me to go on, somehow or other we got lost and we ended up back in Eastwood for another afternoon of coffee and cake. I know J probably thinks I planned it out that way but honestly, we did get lost and even google maps on his phone couldn't get us in the right direction. We still ended up walking for about an hour for the exercise but just not as per the original plan which would've been close to a 2 hour walk all up.

Our venue for coffee and cake this afternoon was Cafe Centro on Rowe Street, Eastwood. The cafe is just outside the shopping centre and next to Commonwealth Bank. It's hard to miss with the seating outside but generally, if I'm here, I'll be indoors. I might have sat our here once but ultimately got too paranoid about the pigeons flying about my head. Who knows what is getting dropped into my food and drink?!

Anyway, it's nice and warm inside and perfect for this cold weather. It gets a little dim towards the back of the cafe but if you sit on the cubes in front of the coffee machine, you'll get the natural sunlight streaming in.

Lemon & Lime Tart.

I used to come here heaps when I was back at uni, whether it was to catch up with J before I had to head into uni, catching up with girlfriends, weekend lunches; I'm actually not too sure why I stopped going. Possibly cause there's so many food choices that have opened up around the area and where possible, I try to venture out of my suburb to try all the places that I get recommended/hear/read about. Nonetheless, I definitely recommend Centro's as a must visit if you're in Eastwood. It's a cafe with a great atmosphere, food is tops (but leans towards being pricey if you compare with the other food choices you have in the area) and I have to say, everyone who works here is extremely good looking! Seriously, check it out and you'll see what I mean.

provence garden cafe @ west parade, eastwood

To point out the obvious, it's so cold! We had a few days of warm weather (one of which I could've mistaken for spring), but once again, it's gone back to being yucky and cold - the sort of weather I find difficult to wake up to, let alone be motivated to do much else.

One thing I've been quite unmotivated about is going outside to take walks. With the weather being so cold, I'm quite content to stay indoors and watch TV, put on a movie, or do a bit of baking. Anything but go outside and brave the cold. J thinks otherwise (he's taken up running) and for the past two weeks, he's dragged me outside to go for walks in the hope of training me up to a run. I tell him I run at the gym but he thinks I should go run on the footpath.

Anyway, long story cut short, the walks have come with incentives. On our first walk, J let me stop for a coffee at Provence Garden Cafe on West Parade in Eastwood. This place used to be a nursery but a Chinese couple have taken over and maintained both a nursery selling bonzais and a small cafe by the side.

A much needed coffee and a slice of the banana cake recommended by the waitress (I'm pretty sure they bake the banana cake themselves - it's not too sweet and tastes great!)

They have magazines! Unfortunately, none that could keep J entertained for long. I could've easily spent my afternoon there pouring over magazines.

Anyway, coffee and cake aside, J got me one of these off Catch of the Day. It keeps me toasty!

Provence Garden Cafe serve up both breakfast and lunch. I'm not sure about dinner as the whole place is lit up by natural light and close to 5pm, it's pretty much all dark. The waitresses there are particularly attentive and friendly. Aside from the occasional buzz of traffic, it's actually quite a nice place to stop by for a coffee and meal (it's away from the main throng of Eastwood) and people are just slowly finding out about the place so it's not too crowded. Despite walking by it everyday from the station, it actually took me awhile to realise that a cafe had opened up there so keep an eye out for it if you're in the area, you might miss it if you don't look carefully.

kreativ blogger award

The lovely and extremely creative Trisha of Sugarlace has awarded me with my first ever 'Kreativ Blogger Award' and I've got to admit, I've been ecstatic about it for the past week! Thanks Trisha!

So following the rules of Kreativ Blogger Award, 7 things about me which hopefully count as interesting (I've kept these related to food):

1. I have filled up an entire bookshelf (to the point of combustion) with food magazines and cookbooks. All the new food mags and books now form piles on my floor - one of these is as tall as my table!

2. I love food but really don't drink that much alcohol (and actually prefer not to because it leaves me hot/flustered and then sleepy) so when it comes to wining and dining, I only really do the dining bit of it.

3. I actually didn't watch a whole lot of Masterchef - the full episode that I watched was the Finale!

4. After work, you'll probably find me at Basement Books at Central Station picking up yet another cookbook (whilst I'm waiting for my train).

5. I'm in love with all things cake and muffins (as simple as they are), are the best cakes for me. I do love cupcakes too but they can sometimes be too sweet.

6. I would love to work with food but I'm still undecided as to whether it's opening up a cafe, becoming a patisserie chef, being a cookbook editor or if it's something else. I just know that I have a passion for food that just won't go away!

7. I hog the kitchen and I'm not good with sharing with a fellow cook :P

Guess what I saw this weekend?

One of my favourite patisseries - Pattison's.

Ok, so passing the award along, here are the 7 blogs that I would like to award:

1. Ja of Beansprouts Cafe

2. Char of Char Post

3. Suze of Chocolate Suze

4. Sarah of Sarah Cooks

5. Lorraine of Not Quite Nigella

6. Steph of Raspberri Cupcakes

7. Belle of Ooh Look

The Kreativ Blogger award comes with the following rules:

1. You must thank the person who has given you the award.

2. Copy the logo and place it on your blog.

3. Link the person who has nominated you for the award.

4. Name 7 things about yourself that people might find interesting.

5. Nominate 7 other Kreativ Bloggers.

6. Post links to the 7 blogs you nominate.

7. Leave a comment on which of the blogs to let them know they have been nominated.

Thanks again Trisha!

wagyu steak wraps

What a week?! Somehow the week sort of started and it crazily went by and well, all I can say is that I'm glad it's over and I have a weekend to look forward to. That also explains the lack of blog posts in the past week, I've just come home from work too exhausted to type up anything but thanks for the comments that all of you have left. It's always great to come back to my blog and know that I have readers out there.

Well I mentioned earlier that I was quite addicted to wagyu beef. We had another BBQ at home last weekend and mum, since learning of my addiction to wagyu, went out to buy more wagyu (shall I say, more than what she did last time) for the BBQ. We ended up having way too much wagyu to cook that night so there were about 3 slabs left over for the next day. Between J&I myself, we were quick to gobble these up (wagyu beef goes down so smoothly - you hardly even need to chew it!); anyway, here's what I made:

The ingredients: Wagyu Beef, Rocket, Sliced Cucumber, Grated Carrot, Lavosh Bread and Nando's Hot Peri Peri Sauce (between Mum and I, we have now stocked up on the whole range of Nando's sauces available at supermarkets!)

Never overcook your wagyu. Look how pretty the pink is between the two seared surfaces (these slabs we had took about 2.5 minutes on each side).

Dose with a generous serving of Nando's Hot Peri Peri Sauce.

The tricky bit is wrapping this up so you can eat it. The Lavosh bread rips quite easily - anyway I've left you with a nice picture of my meal before I had to grab it all together and have sauce dripping out all over the place.

J had two of these for dinner and well, he wasn't really in the mood for conversation because he was happily chewing away. FYI: Originally I'd made us one each and half way through his, he'd perked up and asked about another one so I actually had to get up and make the other one. Good to see though that he finished dinner looking content.

It's really quite satisfying when you've cooked something and people ask for seconds and finish dinner with a smile on their face. And well, even the lack of conversation is excusable when you know that those eating are holding back on the conversation to attack into the food!

meeting beansprouts cafe @ din tai fung, world square

At long last, I got to meet the lovely Ja who happens to live close to where I work. It took us a couple of times to get dinner organised and finally on the day, I was still frantically texting her an hour to dinner time letting her know that I was stuck at work and running late. Sorry Ja! We'd originally planned to meet outside Din Tai Fung (where we were having dinner) but ended up meeting at the main bus stop near by work to catch the bus down together. I nervously waited and was glad to see a big smile that greeted me (like Chef Gena from Sweetness had told me - Ja is so petite and dainty and such a lovely girl!)

Ja had suggested Din Tai Fung and I was keen; it'd been awhile since I last went (probably a good couple of months/half a year). And well to top things off, Din Tai Fung is also in this year's City Entertainment Book so I was armed with a 25% discount voucher to spend.

Xiao Lung Bao (Steamed Dumplings), Drunken Chicken and a Vegetarian Tofu Salad (these are all recommended dishes on the menu). I've actually had two of these before but really, the oldies always turn out to be the favourites!

Spicy Pork & Vegie Dumplings with Noodles. You can also get the dumplings without the noodles. I liked how spicy this one was and it was good to know that Ja also shared a fondness for anything spicy.

Dessert - Steamed Taro Dumplings.

Inside a steamed taro dumpling. I was saying to Ja how this one could've tasted better with chunks of taro rather than the paste. For me, these dumplings also smelt overly of flour which could be improved.

Me & Ja. We set at a shared table (which was the only way to get in quickly and avoid the huge queue) and more than once, we attracted the odd glance/smirk of fellow diners when we whipped out our cameras to take pictures of the food. Bah!

And guess what, chocolate and caramel frosting cupcakes made by Ja for me to take home! Guys and girls, watch out for this girl - she is going to be an up and coming baker for sure! Testimony to this is that I got home late and the next morning, I had mum waking me up telling me how good these cupcakes were and asking me questions about who made them. These cupcakes weren't overly sweet which mum thought was fantastic and actually ate for breakfast which is not something she usually does. I had one later that day and as mum put it, these cupcakes were fantastic! They were moist inside, the icing wasn't overly sweet. They looked just as pretty as they were to eat. Tops Ja!

The conversation that night at the restaurant resolved heavily around food, from food at home, our respective time at LCB, our plans, our blogs, MasterChef, the restaurant, I'm pretty sure everything food related we managed to cover. I was overwhelmed to hear from Ja that she'd been inspired to study at LCB after reading my blog and well, a year on, she's actually gone even ahead of me and finished the whole LCB Patisserie Course. Would love you to stay in Sydney Ja and I'll have an eating buddy for life! Lol, anyway, I know you need to go home at some point but let's go a few more foodie adventures before then!

Great to finally meet you Ja! I thoroughly enjoyed dinner and I hope you did too!

sakae yakiniku house @ hillview rd., eastwood

Sakae Yakiniku House has actually opened up in Eastwood for awhile and it wasn't till last weekend that I made my first visit. If you're new to Eastwood, you actually might miss the restaurant as it's quietly tucked above Eastwood Club and entry is through the door next to the club entry.

Usually I'm quite eager to try out Japanese places when they open up in my area and when this place opened up, I had a ogle outside the restaurant to check out their menu. Apologies to the restaurant but at first I did write this place off because I thought it was just way too expensive. That was until last weekend when mum went out for lunch with my aunts and came home telling me about the lunch and dinner specials they have ($22.80 and $28.80 respectively for a 4 course meal).

Ascend a flight of stairs to get to the restaurant. I think there's lift access but I think the entry is inside Eastwood Club.

Course 1: Entree. There's probably about 8 things you can pick from - J&I went for the Beef Tataki and Kimchi Pancake.

Course 2: Yakiniku. Our choices were the beef skirt and beef ribs.

Course 3: Mains. Again, there's a selection for you to choose from. We went for the Sashimi Salad Don and...

Korean style Cold Noodles - Neng Myun.

Course 4: Dessert - changes daily. That night we were given a vanilla icecream with chocolate sauce and sprinkles.

Green tea as well as a salad appetiser are also part of the deal. You probably don't realise at first but it's actually a lot of food for just under $30pp for the meal. All the food is immaculately presented and tastes fantastic -I enjoyed every course we picked out (and it's great to know that I can come back here for the same deal and there's still plenty of items for me to choose from). Much to J's delight, they have Sapporo Beer on tap and if anything, I reckon he could've done with just drinking the beer for the night.

The decor here is gorgeous; most of the tables are wood partitioned offering privacy if you're dining in a group. J&I sat at one of the tables by the window (which looked out onto the street) so were a little jealous of the tables that got their own booth. I guess next time we'll come back here with a few more people!

Service was friendly and the waitresses were extremely attentive. We managed to find street parking outside so it was quite convenient to finish up dinner, get back into the car for the drive home.

cooking with ikea meatballs

It was reading Suze's post and then Trisha's post that I finally resolved to pull out the bag of Ikea meatballs from the freezer and actually give them a go. Mum had bought the bag when she and dad were on an Ikea phase and kept making trips to Rhodes to pick up bits and pieces and they'd been eating the breakfasts and meals at the Ikea restaurant. Apparently they both like the meatballs at Ikea and hence the kilo bag they brought back home. For me, I had my first taste of Ikea meatballs when I cooked this pasta on the weekend.

Ikea meatballs with Pasta Italia Macaroni & Napoletana Sauce (from the Good Food & Wine Show). I'm a big fan of Pasta Italia - fresh pasta is the way to go!

It took me no more than 15 minutes to cook up this batch of pasta. I used about a quarter of a bag of meatballs, microwaved them for 3 minutes and then pan fried in the saucepan for a minute. Added the Napoletana sauce and heated through.

The instructions on the box of pasta say that the pasta takes about 3-4 minutes to cook. It took me about double the about of time to get it al dente.

Toss the pasta with the meatballs and sauce.

Serve with parmesan.

Ikea meatballs aren't bad at all! With pasta, they make for a satisfying meal and I reckon I could just microwave them and eat them by themselves with tomato sauce as a snack. It's great that they don't take long to reheat (there is the option of heating in the oven which takes about 15 minutes) but 3 minutes in the microwave cooked these meatballs just fine.

I wouldn't exactly call Ikea meatballs gourmet but they were great for cooking up a quick meal. Been busy lately, have no idea where my time goes so it's great that I can whip up something to eat in a flash!

nutmeg slice

Whilst baking the banana and maple syrup muffins in my last post, I flipped through 'In The Kitchen' to re-bookmark recipes for cooking and somehow or other, decided to make the nutmeg slice as well. So out came the banana and maple syrup muffins and in went a nutmeg slice. Usually mum discourages me from doing more than one lot of baking in a weekend (we just can't eat it all) but thankfully, we were having family over that night and more people could help us eat. I also had all the ingredients for the slice at home and it was just a matter of measuring everything out and it worked out well that baking the nutmeg slice, I used up ingredients that were nearly finished anyway.

Admittedly, making the slice was a bit more work than usual. Muffins - you don't need to do a whole lot (actually it's best that you leave muffin batter lumpy). With the slice I was making, there was a base as well as the filling. Probably the most time consuming was this biscuit base (combo of flour, butter and brown sugar) which took some time to crumb together so that it resembled fine bread crumbs.

Line a tin with baking paper and assemble the base. Try to keep it thin.

The filling is actually half the biscuit base with all the wet ingredients (milk + eggs). Don't forget the key ingredient - 1 tsp of ground nutmeg.

Pour over the biscuit base.

Top with flaked almonds.

Bake for 30 minutes.

Allow to cool before slicing into squares.

To be honest with you, I was quite nervous baking this slice. It wasn't that the recipe was hard, if anything it was easy to follow as are all the recipes. My main concern was around the key ingredient - nutmeg. The bottle of nutmeg was floating around in one of the kitchen drawer (the last time I used it would've been to make Nigella's Cabonara) and well, nutmeg just isn't a common ingredient for baking (well not for me anyway). Mixed with the fact that I come from an Asian household, it just isn't one of those ingredients that we're familiar with.

As the slice was baking, I caught the scent of the nutmeg and even when the tray came out of the oven, I was sniffing at the slice to see whether it was edible. Nutmeg has a very distinctive taste which I'm not sure will actually attract you to the slice if you're just smelling it but I took my baby steps and had a taste of it. OMG - this recipe produces the lightest of biscuit bases and such a moist topping. The flaked almonds just top the cake! I was out that night but mum gave me some very positive feedback when I spoke to her the next day. Apparently everyone loved it and well, there wasn't even the slightest mention of using nutmeg!

Anyway, that makes it Recipe #10!

banana & maple syrup muffins with maple syrup frosting

I learnt something new this weekend and I wonder if people actually know that there's 'Maple Syrup' and 'Maple Flavoured Syrup'? Up till two days ago, I would've thought that both were the same thing until I had a good look at the supermarket and realised that Maple syrup was almost 5 times more expensive than Maple flavoured syrup. And well, a bit of marketing works and it was actually a wobbler on the Maple syrup bottle that caught my attention.

The Maple syrup bottle with the wobbler. Yes, I work in advertising and I still get sucked in by marketing! This was almost $10 for the bottle.

The plan for this weekend was to make the banana & maple syrup muffins with the maple syrup frosting from 'In the Kitchen'. FYI: This was actually the first two recipes I'd put a post it against when I got the book and well, it ends up being the 8th and 9th recipes that I'm cooking (it'll be awhile till I get to the 1000 or so recipes that are in this volume). 

Start by mashing the bananas and caster sugar. The mistake I made here was that the bananas just weren't ripe enough. I nearly doubled that fork over trying to mash the banana - somehow managed in the end but I urge you to wait till your bananas are ripe and browning.

Unfortunately, muffin mix doesn't look that great especially when you've got banana in it.

Into the muffin cases for baking. Again, true to its word, the recipe gave me 10 equally sized muffins.

The muffins took about 20 minutes to bake. Whilst the tray was in the oven, I got started with the Maple syrup frosting - basically 3 tbsp of maple syrup with 100g of soft cream cheese.

It doesn't look like a lot of frosting but trust me, just a little bit of frosting is enough to top the muffins.

The muffins are done!

When my uncle came over, he asked me whether I'd filled up a piping bag just to ice the 10 muffins that I made. Yes I did - he thought I went to a lot of effort just for 10 muffins but it's well worth it in the end.

Look how pretty they are! The piping isn't the best but I think these muffins with the piped icing look better than just smearing the frosting on with a knife.

I knew already that banana wasn't ripe enough and when I had a taste of one of these, you could easily taste the rawness of the banana. However, the texture of the muffin was moist as has been all the muffin recipes I've used out of this book - the maple syrup frosting went down as a treat with the muffins (gave it a sweetness which I think is just right).

There's still a few more muffin recipes yet to go in the book. I do love a good muffin and so far, the recipes just seem to get better!

happy birthday kl!

This weekend has been a whirlwind of eating and baking and it all started of with KL's b'day dinner on Friday night. The b'day boy didn't have any dinner plans and whilst we were already getting together the next day for hotpot, 9 of us thought we'd go for dinner with the b'day boy. The Counter in Crows Nest was suggested and whilst J rang to try and make a booking and couldn't, we were reassured that a table for our size would be available.

Getting to The Counter, there was quite a crowd lining up and when I spoke to the guy at the door, we were in for a half hour wait. It wasn't a huge hassle as we were all coming from work and half of us had turned up at that point. To be honest, the wait ended up being 15 minutes and by the time we were seated, we were still waiting for some of our friends to arrive. 

It was my second time at The Counter. The first time I went for one of their standard burgers, this time I thought I'd have a go at building my own. The waitress gets us to put our times on the order to help service.

Without having to look at the drinks menu, I'd already decided I was getting one of these - the Apple Pie Milkshake! (I hear that a whole slice of apple pie gets blended into this). Actually, J decided he wanted one so...

Between us we also got the Peanut Butter Milkshake (lusciously thick and surprisingly not too overpowering - I was half expecting the shake to get stuck to the roof of my mouth which is what usually happens when I have peanut butter but this shake has all the flavour of peanut butter without it sticking!) Anyway, they have a Shake of the Month which I noticed a minute to late else I probably would've gotten it, it's a Cherry Pie Shake (which hopefully will be there the next time I head over).

We got entrees for the table to share. Here are the Sweet Potato Fries which I think are a bargain - only $3.25. We got chips and onion rings also - we all had our favourites but my one tonight were these sweet potato fries.

The Counter Burger (which is what I had the first time I was here).

My custom built burger which in hindsight, is not so different to your regular burger. It took me awhile to select everything and I'm ashamed to say, I built a rather boring burger (it was tasty though!) - my combo was a 150g beef patty (cooked medium), imported swiss cheese, beetroot, dill pickle chips, grilled onions, lettuce blend served on a hamburger bun and served with a roasted garlic aioli. I'd have to say that my friend P was a bit more adventurous and went for a hard boiled egg, olives and brussel sprouts combo - hats off to you and your burger!

Speaking of boring, J doesn't do much better. His combo looks much like mine except that he's gone for a 300g beef patty (cooked medium rare). He struggled with it as did all the other boys that went for the 300g patty. 150g is decently enough.

We were there from about 7.30pm till when the kitchen closed (which was probably about 10pm). We weren't hassled to leave but around us, tables came and went - this place sure is busy! Our waitress was friendly and attentive - when she saw that our meals hadn't come out, she dashed into the kitchen to check and little things like asking for a few glasses of water, without asking she got the whole table water. 

I do enjoy coming to The Counter and yes, I might have a slight obsession with burgers at the moment and yes, I'm not real creative when it comes to building my own burger, but I think this place has got something going and it turned out to be a great place to celebrate a friend's b'day.

Hope you had a great b'day KL!

dinner @ jo's

Last Sunday, the lovely Jo invited a group of us over for dinner - the hostess was cooking a shoulder of lamb and for the rest of us, we were asked to bring along a main dish and a dessert. The theme for dessert was chocolate or cheese - chocolate ended up being everyone's ingredient of choice and we ended up with a tableful of chocolate desserts to munch on. Anyway, here's what everyone brought on the night:

A's Pumpkin Soup (it was a tad spicy and when I asked A, the secret ingredient in it was Curry Powder which I thought was a might good combination).

C's Chicken Pie (made by C's sister).

M's Butter Chicken & Rice.

Jo's Shoulder of Lamb (uber tasty!) and the Pear, Walnut & Rocket Salad from my last post.

Dessert time! As full as I was from dinner, I managed to taste test everyone's desserts. Here you'll see M's Chocolate Tarts, C's Melting Moments, A's Chocolate Scones, Jo's sister's Blueberry & Lemon Scones and my Flourless Chocolate Muffins. 

I was definitely in need of a cup of tea to help me digest!

Dinner and dessert was a great idea and we all left Jo's place contentedly full. I had my goodie bag of desserts to take home (which my mum thought was rather cute and started questioning me on what everything was and who made it). It was great to also watch Sunday's episode of Masterchef over dinner with the girls and talk about food. Definitely a great way to finish up on a weekend!

pear, walnut & rocket salad with classic salad dressing

So I finally made my first, actually two savoury recipes from 'In the Kitchen'. Thanks to Jo who invited a couple of the girls over for dinner on Sunday night, we were all requested to bring along a dish and a dessert. My dessert were the the flourless chocolate muffins I made in my last post. After careful deliberation (taking into account what the other girls were making, guessing what they were making, time constraints and ingredients I had at home), for my 'dish', I ended up going with the pear, walnut & rocket salad from 'In the Kitchen' with the classic salad dressing.

The dressing took just a matter of minutes to whip up - a simple combo of dijon mustard, red wine vinegar, extra virgin olive oil as well as cracked salt + pepper to taste. Personally, I loved it and I had Jo's mum ask me for the recipe.

To make one bowl of salad (which ended up decently serving 7), combine rocket (in my case, I used Italian mix), parmesan, toasted walnuts and sliced pear. I was worried that the dressing would make the salad soggy and brought it over to Jo's place separately to add just before serving. Turns out you didn't really need to - with the extra ingredients I made the salad again to bring to lunch today and I added the dressing straight away. By lunchtime, the salad was still fine.

The finished salad.

As strange as it sounds, the toasted walnuts in this salad are addictive. I never thought I was a big fan of walnuts but I end up munching on them whilst they were toasting in the oven and even before they went into the salad. I daresay, strange things are happening and I'm getting old - things I never used to like I'm starting to like! Bitter gourd and walnuts are just the start!

flourless chocolate muffins

Last week, I went a little crazy and started marking with post-its all the recipes I wanted to cook from 'In The Kitchen'. Well the plan is to cook my way through the book but then there's ones which I want to cook first and these were the ones I was putting post-it notes against. By the time I was done, I ended up with a book with post-it notes coming out of all sides and I sort of thought to myself, I haven't really achieved a whole lot.

As crazy as it seems though, there is a method to the madness. I go through the book, pick out the recipes which really interest me and the next time I'm at the supermarket or fruit market, I'm on the alert for ingredients that are on special and then cook the respective recipe with that ingredient. It worked out this weekend when I found chocolate blocks on special and decided to cook the flourless chocolate muffins.

Melting the butter and chocolate.

Whipping the egg whites to firm peaks.

To the chocolate mixture, add egg yolks, almond meal plus caster sugar. Fold in the whipped egg white.

Into the muffin liners.

Bake for about 30-35 minutes and you get these nicely puffed up muffins with the cracked tops.

It actually came as a bit of surprise to me that these muffins rose so much. Every other flourless cake/baked product I've seen baked by others or baked commercially seems to collapse in on itself. I actually brought these over for dinner at a friend's and even my friend A was querying me whether it was actually flourless and whether I'd put any raising agents in it. The answer is no and if anything, it would be the fact that I folded in the egg whites slowly and didn't collapse any of the air bubbles so when baked, they looked just like normal muffins (but of course with the cracked tops).

So this brings it to Recipe #5 and so far, so good!

hong kong cafe @ carlingford village

Saturday night, I joined Mum & Dad for dinner at Hong Kong Cafe in Carlingford Village. It's been awhile since I've been here unlike my parents who routinely head over to Carlingford Village each weekend to pick up groceries and Chinese magazines and who visit Hong Kong Cafe much more than I do. If you ask them, they'll give you a good word or two about this place, they reckon it's probably one of the few Chinese places that have opened up and have actually maintained the quality of their food over time. We discussed it at dinner also but the latest topic of discussion amongst my parents is that most of our local Chinese joints are becoming quite bad - from bad hygiene, poor quality food to chefs that don't really know how to cook but yet call themselves cooks. It's one of those topics which we could discuss at length! Anyway, moving on...

For me, the one thing I love about Hong Kong Cafe is their HK Style Milk Teas. It's strong yet slightly sweet as it should be. I like my milk tea cold and this place serves it with the right amount of ice. Anyway, whilst waiting for food, I was browsing through my free copy of Good Food Magazine which I picked up at the Good Food Show.

Stir Fried Beef Noodles. Truly a classic done just right.

This was an XO sauce chicken noodle which had a decent amount of fresh chilli tossed through. My parents weren't a big fan of the chilli and started picking them out but I loved it!

Pork with Crispy Noodles. This is my dad's favourite and he orders it without fail whenever he feels like noodles. The crispy noodles are great (adds texture to the dish) but I'm not the biggest fan of the pork bits that come with it - they just taste like bleached pieces of meat (I swear, it tastes like this wherever you order it!)

Over time, I've grown to love this dish. It's fish with black bean, bitter gourd, bamboo sheets and mushrooms. Hate to say the obvious but I used to find the bitter gourd 'bitter' but over time, you get accustomed to the taste and you actually come to crave it.

The four dishes was a bit much for the three of us and we ended up taking away a box of noodles for home.

Anyway, for those interested, Hong Kong Cafe serve up breakfast, lunch, afternoon tea and dinner. I'm always tempted to go for afternoon tea because they have Nissin 2 minute noodle specials (I know it's silly, I could cook a pack at home but you've got to admit, it does taste a bit better when it gets cooked by someone else!) 

Overall, it's worth visiting and you'll get a decent feed for under $15.

good food & wine show 2009

The Sydney Good Food & Wine Show is an event that Mum & I look forward to each year and without fail, we made our way over there today for the second day of the show (end's tomorrow so get there whilst it's still on!). 

It was quite noticeable that there were a few less exhibitors at this year's show. No Lindt, No Lilydale Chicken, gone were a lot of the bigger brands but more of the smaller brands and locally produced vendors. Not necessarily a bad thing and yay to Cookie Couture (with their range of pretty decorated cookies - unfortunately they only had some sample cookies on sale), they yummylicious Yael's - Cakes of Distinction (shame that they weren't selling cakes at the show but just offering samples), Bretzels from Melbourne (I had the Cinnamon and Vanilla) and so the list goes on.

It was great that the show took up another hall this year and everything was a bit more spread out; still crowded but with the extra space, we all got a bit more breathing space. It also meant that Mum, M & I managed to get ourselves a seat at the Lindeman's Early Harvest Restaurant. The queue to get the 'dining currency' i.e. $8 vouchers was a little annoying but my theory is that it's a decoy to slow people down from getting into the restaurant too quickly, meaning that by the time you get your vouchers and get your meal, you should be able to get yourself a table because others have left. Anyway, between the three of us, we decided on 2 mains and 2 desserts and without us knowing, we ended choosing one item from each of the 4 celebrity chefs. 

Gordon Ramsay's Glazed Salmon with Spinach & Radish Salad. I didn't get the matching wine with this one but swapped it with a bottle of Perrier Mineral Water.

Toby Puttock's Veal Osso Bucco. Would've been better if this was served a bit warmer.

Alistair McLeod's Chocolate Cream Brulee, Irish Whiskey soaked strawberries, almond biscotti. Not a traditional creme brulee with the sugar topping to crack and tasted more like a pannacotta.

Matt Moran's Strawberry Tart with Champagne Sabyon. This one got us into a conversation with randoms that were sitting next to us. They thought our one had more raspberries than theirs - we had to explain to them that our one 'looked like ' it had more raspberries because we'd quartered the tart and all the raspberries and sauce started running all over the plate.

The loot!

Speaking of random, mum bought a broom at the show (the handle which you see in the above pic). Again, we somehow started a conversation with a random and bought the broom with them (it was $30 for 2) and well, mum thinks it's the best thing in the world because it sweeps all types of floors from tiles to carpet!

Let me say, tops to Weight Watchers - I think they were probably the best stalls at the show. They were generously handing out ice cream sundaes (which tasted great!), their showbag was value for money and the staff were so friendly and helpful. As you can see, the Weight Watchers showbag was one of the many bags Mum & I picked up! Although my favourite would have to be the 'Ritter Sport' Bag (see top right in the above pic - basically a bag made out of Ritter Sport wrappers).

Coming home, I'm all aches and pains. You see, all the items you see above were hand carried by Mum and myself (we couldn't be bothered with bringing the trolley we had at home because it takes so much space). So all up, we probably spent a good 5 hours at the show walking, minus the half hour we were in the Celebrity Theatre watching the Masterchef's; Gary Mehigan and George Calombaris. Buggered!

pier @ new south head rd., rose bay

For A's birthday this year (aka my bestie), her hubby organised a surprise dinner for four of us at Pier in Rose Bay. The booking was made about a month in advance and A had no idea till the night that J&I were coming. It was only when she was seated at a table of 4 with her hubby that it occurred to her that there were two more people coming. Apparently, her first guess was that it would be me so to the hubby, you did a good job and we managed to keep it a surprise!

I've known Pier by name for awhile now and so I literally jumped at the invitation for dinner when it came my way. First thing I did was to go to the website to check out the menu which probably hasn't been updated in awhile - there wasn't any info on the degustations and I actually thought they didn't have one (which seemed a little odd). I was pleasantly surprised to find 2 degustations on offer when I got there on the night.

We ended up going for the 8 course degustation for $179pp.

Apologies for the following photos. I don't have the best of cameras and have yet learn how to use one properly! J requested a photo of his gin and tonic glass. See how the glass is shaped?

Sourdough to start with - served with butter and salt flakes. J went crazy on the salt flakes and very shortly afterwards was whispering into my ear whether or not we could ask for more bread. FYI: They come back with more bread after Course 5.

Course 1: Cone of King Salmon Tartare. You pick it up and eat it like an icecream. At first I thought I'd be left with an empty cone but just like an icecream, as you bite into it, you'll find that the filling falls down into the cone so you'll have a nice spread of salmon tartare throughout! The little black balls you see are capers.

Course 2: Carpaccio of Kingfish. We debated this one at the table - definitely have the kingfish pieces with the vinaigrette (otherwise it doesn't have much flavour).

Course 3: Tian of Spanner Crab. I didn't get a photo of the pea jus when it came to the table. It was actually in a small glass jar and the waitress poured it onto the dish at the table.

Course 4: Pan Roasted Scallops. I was told that the scallops were Pier's signature dish and A's hubby had been talking about it from the start of the meal. It certainly didn't disappoint!

Course 5: Crispy Skinned Murray Cod. As strange as it'll sound, my favourite item on the night was the bitter orange mash that was on this plate. If only they could serve up a little more on the plate!

There was a bit of a break between Course 5 and 6, during which A's hubby started telling us about the goat's curd in the next course. At some point, J asks the question 'So what's the shape of it' to which my response was 'We're not talking about goat's turd'! I'm so glad he didn't speak any louder or ask one of the waiters/waitresses.

Course 6: Capparis Goat's Curd. Eaten with the brioche and poached pears, it's actually quite nice - admittedly, goat's curd is a bit of an acquired taste as it has a strong, distinctive flavour which A's hubby wasn't a particular fan of. 

Turns out A isn't a big fan of goat's curd either and she hardly touched hers. The hubby helps cleans the plate nonetheless and does it in one gulpful.

Course 7: Beet Sponge. I was fascinated by this when it came to the table - it's so soft and spongy and tastes great with the chocolate sauce. Would love to find out how they make this - it tastes and looks almost like the soft bit in a crusty bread roll. 

Course 8: Caramel Rum Braised Banana. My favourite course would have to be this one. It's a work of art how the dessert comes to the table and the mix of flavours is perfect. I loved the coconut sorbet, the rum sponge, the tamarind jelly and the crumbling of almond brittle - there wouldn't be a thing that I'd change.

The four of us.

You probably can't tell in the above photo but where we were seated looks out onto the water. I was saying to A how it would've been good to come during the day because you'd have a fantastic view to look out onto. At night, all you can see is the lights from buildings and houses.

Personally I thought the 8 course degustation hit the spot. I enjoyed every course, the food was immaculately presented (I was probably the slowest eater at the table because I wanted to keep everything intact) and at the end of the meal, I wasn't feeling uncomfortably full which is what I've found with other degustations I've had in the past. Admittedly, you need to love seafood to enjoy the degustation and for me, it was just perfect! Service was just as perfect and immaculate over the 3 hour period that we were there - I couldn't have asked for more.

Ample parking is available on the street (well at night time anyway). If you're heading here for the first time (from the city), keep your eyes out as you get onto New South Head Road - you'll be looking for a stand alone building that juts out into the water. You won't actually see the Pier Restaurant sign until you've driven past and look back. Obviously if you're coming from the other direction, you shouldn't have any problems. 

Hope you had a great birthday A!